ET Awards: Chanda Kochhar picked as Business Leader of the Year from a fray of four men

The intent was evident from the very beginning — JP Morgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon purposefully slid out of his suit and perched on to his chair, the black books containing the profiles of all the nominees hit the table, and the jury meeting for the 2011 edition of The ET Awards for Corporate Excellence was underway.

Minutes later, the jury's first message reverberated across the room — the glass ceiling is gone. The jury picked Chanda Kochhar as the Business Leader of the Year from a fray of four other men. This year, ET did away with the Business Woman of the Year award, believing the time had come for India Inc's men and women to fight it out for the country's premier award. Kochhar, the sole woman contender, won.

In making that choice, the jury stayed true to the bar they set for all the other awards. Everywhere, the jury members hunted out candidates that met the "break out criteria". Mere good performance was not good enough; the jurists only wanted the truly extraordinary.

For Entrepreneur of the Year, just ideas were not enough, implementation was also demanded. For the Emerging Company of the Year, the jury went for a firm that has rewritten the dynamics of the industry. For the Policy Change Agent, they went for someone who had the potential to strategically change the course of the nation.

Jury Set the Standards Very High

The 2011 ET Jury set the bar so high, that it did not hesitate to scrap an award category where they felt the nominees in the fray really didn't live up to the extraordinary league they were hoping to create with the winners this year.

Dimon kept the deliberations flowing at an easy pace, relying on the counsel of his local colleagues Anand Mahindra, Deepak Parekh, Harish Manwani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, KV Kamath and Zia Mody. He did not hesitate to pause and draw out more views where he felt a richer discussion was in order.

He paid special attention and encouraged debate whenever any jury member expressed a view that was different from the majority at the table. Not all decisions were unanimous, with Dimon not hesitating to put things to vote. There were some lighter moments too. In the Global Indian category, three bankers in the jury were presented with a choice of five candidates, two of whom were bankers.

An Indian banker turned the tables on Dimon and asked him to pick between Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and Anshu Jain, Deutsche Bank's head of corporate and investment banking. Finally, when the jury picked Pandit, a member remarked that the Citigroup CEO could have also made it to a "Survivor of the Year" award for the sheer grit he has shown in his challenging role.

Earlier in the afternoon, the camaraderie among the jurors was quite evident as they started trooping in. KV Kamath, a Formula One fan, walked straight up to Anand Mahindra and said plenty of good words about his just-launched XUV500.

Zia Mody jokingly dared the other jurors to run the Mumbai marathon like Mahindra did, in a sleeveless T-shirt with biceps showing. He and Parekh greeted each other in an impromptu and elaborate combination of the Japanese bow and the Indian namaste... this was India Inc in its power play.